Towel cabinet



Patented Jan. 12, 1926.

UNITED STATES 1,569,438- PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A.I STEINEB, 0F SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNOB T0 STEINER SALES COM- PANY, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, A CORPORATION OI' UTAH.

' TowEL CABINET.

Application ledvFebruary 20, 1.922A Seri'al No. 538,102.

T 0 all 'whom it may concern.' y

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. STEINER, a citizen of the United States, resident of Salt Lake City, county of Salt Lake, State of. Utah, have invented certain, new and useful Improvements in Towel Cabinets, of which the following is a specification.

T he object of my resent invention is to provide a4 towel ca inet of simple, economical construction, from which all gears, drive chains or belts and the like are entirely omitted.

A further object is to provideI feed or. control rolls, so constructed that there willl be either no cont-act at all between the clean towel and the roll which contacts with the soiled towel, or such contact will be so slight as to make practically no difference vin the sanitary characteristics of the cabinet.

A furtherobject is to provide a cabinet from which the rolls can all be easily and quickly removed without Vthe use of tools of any kind.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following detailed description.'

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through a cabinet embodying my invention,

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing a modiiied construction, Figure 3 is a detail view of one of the feed or control rolls removed yfrom the casing,

Figure y4 is a vertical sectional view, showing ribs arranged circumferentially on the feed rolls instead of lengthwise thereof,

Figure is a sectional Zie-5 of Figure 4,

Figure 6 is a detail View, showing a modified construction of the feed or control rolls.

In the drawing, 2 represents the side walls of a cabinethaving a rear wall 3, a top 4 and a door 5 in the front through which access maybe had to the interior.

The side walls of the cabinet. have horizontal grooves 6 therein, forming guides communicating with vertical grooves 7 extending down to a point near the bottom of the cabinet. Ashaft 8 yis adapted for insertion into these grooves and sup rts the clean towel roll 9. A similar sha 10 is adapted to receive the soiled towel 11.A Between the clean and soiled towel rolls I provide feed view on thev line or control rolls, the lower roll 12 having gudgeons 18 to fit and slide in the guides' 6 and 7 and provided on its periphery with `v a series of longitudinallyv arranged ribsj14- betwee which are groves 15, the outer faces of sald ribs having a suitable material,

such as sand paper 16 or cord belting may? be usedfor contact with the surface of 'the clean towel, so that when the user stands in front'of the cabinet and pulls d wn on the loose end of the clean towel he will revolve the feed roll in contact therewith.

` The other roll 17 has corresponding lgudgeons to slide in thexguideways and longitudinal ribs 18 with roughened surfaces 16 similar to those on the 'other roll,A

and the ribs 18 have grooves 19 between them adapted to receive the ribs 14 so that when the rolls are in engagement with each other, the ribs 18 will enter the lgrooves 15 but will not come in contactv with the surfaces of the ribs 14 and consequently the ribs of the soiled towel feed roll will not contact with the clean towel to render it unsanitary or cause danger of infection to a user. The ribs 14 may contact with the bottoms of the grooves in the soiled towel feed roll, but these grooves will not become contaminated through contact with the soiled towel, as this portion of the towel will. only engage the outer faces of the ribs 18 and as these ribs are 'at all points kept out of contact with the clean towel or with any portion of the clean towel feed roll which touches the clean towel, it follows that there will be no chance of soiling the cleanv towel before use or permitting any portion of it to become infected.

The soiled towel roll and the feed rolls will rest by gravity upon the clean towel and there will, therefore, be ysufficient friction between them to insurethe rotation of vall the rolls when the `user stands in front l towel and in the rear of the clean towel roll,

I provide a brace 22 with which the soiled towel contacts and is directed to the soiled towel roll without any chance of contact with the clean towel.

` In Figure 2 I have shown a modification which consists in omitting the soiled towel feed roll entirely and allowing the rough- Aened surfaces 16 of the ribs 14 to contact with the soiled towel and also with the clean towel. These points of contact are' comparatively narrow and while this form of cabinet will not be as sanitary as theone shown in Figure 1, there will be comparatively little danger of soiling the clean towel or infecting it through the contactY of this roll with the soiled towel. In other respects the cabinet shown in Figure 2 is substantially the same as the one illustrated in Figure 1.

In Figures 4 and 5 I have shown another modification, which consists in providing feed rolls 23 having a series of annular ribs 24 thereon and a similar roll 25 having ribs 26 which alternate with the ribs 24 and project into the gaps between these ribs. The relative position of the ribs is shown plainly in Figure 5, where the ribs 26 are shown in contact with the soiled towel but do not contact with the faces of the ribs 24 of the lower feed roll, and hence there is no direct contact between the cleanand soiled towel rolls. vThe rolls are mounted one above another in the guideways in substantially the same manner shown with reference to the other figures. lVhen the user stands in front of 'the cabinet and pulls down on the clean portion of the towel, he will revolve the feed roll 23 and through the contact of the ribs 24 with the other feed roll 25, it will be revolved and its motion transmitted to the soiled towel roll through the ribs 26.

In Figure 6 I have shown another modi? fication, which consists in providing a shaft 27 having spools 28 thereon provided with annular flanges 29 which have sand-papered or otherwise roughened surfaces to contact with the clean towel. A similar-shaft 27a is mounted above the shaft 27 to slide in the grooves in the walls of the cabinet and narrow faced rolls 3() are mounted on the shaft 27a and have roughened surfaces to contact with the soiled towel, the rolls 3() being of suitable width to pass between the flanges of the s'pools 28, as indicated in the figure. Their surfaces, however, do not contact with thecorresponding surfaces of the anges and consequently the contacting surfaces of the spools or the parts thereof which touch the clean towel will not be contaminated through contact with the rolls which touch be thoroughly sanitary in the sense that the clean towel is kept out of contact with the soiled portion and all danger of infection of the clean towel, which might occur through engagement thereof with rolls which contact with the soiled towel, will be eliminated.

In various other ways these feed control `rolls may he modified in arrangement and other, the ribs contacting with the soiled towel roll being out of contact with the surfaces of the ribs which contact with the clean towel roll.

2. A towel cabinet comprising a casing, clean and soiled towel rolls therein, feed rolls interposed between said clean and soiled towel rolls and having longitudinal peripheral ribs thereon with roughened faces, the ribs of one roll contacting with the clean towel and the ribs of the other roll contacting with the soiled towel and interlocking with the ribs of the clean towel feed roll without contacting with the faces thereof, whereby when the user exerts a pull on the clean towel the feed rolls will be revolved to wind up the soiled towel.

3. A towel cabinet comprising a casing having vertical guideways in its side walls, clean and soiledtowel rolls mounted one above the other in said guideways, feed rolls between said clean and soiled towel rolls, each feed roll having a plurality of narrow peripheral ribs thereon provided with roughened surfaces respectively for engagingthe webs of said towel rolls respectively, the ribs of one roll fitting between the ribs of the other roll, the ribs Contactin with the soiled towel roll being positionef to be out oflcontact at all points with the surfaces of the ribs which contact with the clean towel roll whereby contamination of the clean towel roll from the' soiled towel roll is prevented.

In witness whereof, I have her unto set my hand this tenth day of Februay, 1922. GEORGE A. STEINER.. 

